The One True Champion
by Mitsukoshi
Summary: Game based. People are being brought into the pokemon world and as they search for answers as to why, they find themselves fighting over trivialities that keep them from getting answers.
1. Chapter 1

**The One True Champion**

By MaskeradeHamster

Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon.

A/N: This is my first fic. Yay! Please forgive any major or minor errors, since I don't have a beta yet. I'm working on it .; If you do find anything wrong, feel free to leave a review about it, I don't mind flames much, but I would prefer that people refrain from using profanity every other word. With that, let's begin!

The sun wasn't even out when Scarlet woke up. She had a knack for waking up earlier than anyone else, especially if she wasn't in her own house.

She scanned the room quickly with much interest. Posters she had never seen before adorned the walls in a makeshift way that made people uneasy and think that the posters could fall off any moment, it was definitely her style of doing things, but the posters themselves weren't. Small knick-knacks that she recognized lay next to her on a small night stand that she couldn't make out as anything that she had seen before. The room's walls were decorated in the same color as her room's walls, but lacked the mars and marks she had made on her room's walls as a child. It was as though this was her room, yet at the same time wasn't.

Scarlet flipped the blankets covering her to the side that were the same color as the ones at home, but had a different design. The removed blankets also revealed pajamas that were similarly different.

She quickly swung her feet over the bed's edge and barely skimmed the carpet with her toes. The bed was the same height as it was at home too, unless she had changed. She glanced down at her feet. They still had the same grotesque shade of red nail polish on that she had applied two weeks before, and from what she could see, they also sported the same chipped edges as before.

"I wonder," Scarlet mused out loud as she stood up and walked over to a dresser that she had never seen before. Small photographs were stuck into the frame showing herself with some of her friends and schoolmates and a few adults, some of which she didn't know. Her eyes traveled down the images. One of her and Susan…..another one of her and two adults next to a large Mickey Mouse statue…..another one of her, Mitsuko, and Ralph….then there was one with her surrounded by several brightly colored animals.

Scarlet grabbed the last photo, ripping it slightly at the corner. Her eyes narrowed at the picture and she squinted, trying to see if her mind was tricking her. In the picture she was sitting down in front of a large water fountain with a bright yellow thing on her shoulder, a giraffe like creature was next to her, what looked like a large furry weasel in a bright pink dress was trying to climb into her lap.

Theories started popping up in Scarlet's head. She had seen these creatures before, but where? Realization struck, Scarlet looked back up at the posters. They cartoon images of pokemon. Scarlet's eyes fell back on the picture as the names of the beings there were already coming to her. The small yellow one was a pichu, Tekka; it was the one from her game. The giraffe was Kawai, another one of the pokemon from her games. The weasel, Wess, was a furret from the same game as Kawai.

Scarlet's eyes traveled around her room. This must be the room she had in her games. It didn't look like anything from a game. Scarlet could see a computer sitting in a far corner that could have been one from the game. A large mat covering the floor in the middle of the room vaguely looked familiar. A clock was hanging next to the door ticking loudly that resembled the clock in Pokemon Emerald. At the corner opposite of the computer and across from Scarlet were six balls. Scarlet made a dive for them.

The balls were scooped up into Scarlet's hands and examined in turn. The first one she looked at was a red and white premium ball engraved with the name 'Tekka' in a fancy script. The rest had the same fancy script on different types of balls.

Scarlet held up the ball engraved with 'Tekka' and pushed its button hesitantly. The ball enlarged to the size of her fist and she let go of it in surprise. The ball hit the ground and with a small burst of light it opened to let out a small pichu.

At first, Scarlet squealed in delight and immediately snatched the small pokemon into a strangle-like hug. The pichu didn't squeal in protest and remained limp.

Scarlet paused. Maybe she hugged it a little too tight? She held the pichu out at arms distance and to her horror found large black smears all over her pajamas and the pichu.

"Ewwww!" Scarlet cried out in disgust as she hurriedly set the pichu onto the floor.

"What is this stuff?" she looked to the pichu in answer.

"Makeup," the pichu squeaked at her.

"What?"

"Makeup," the pichu said again.

"No, not that, I mean you can talk…..and I'm not that crazy, am I?" Scarlet brought her hand to her forehead, brushing a few long strands of reddish-brown hair away from her face.

"You're not crazy; we always could talk to each other. After all, you created me," the pichu said in its squeaky voice.

"Oh, but I don't remember ever being here…"

The pichu looked at Scarlet in puzzlement as she began pacing the room.

"I can't remember this place, it's familiar, but…..I'm not going crazy, am I?" Scarlet stopped her pacing to look to the pichu for answers.

"You're not crazy," the pichu assured her, "it's just amnesia."

"Amnesia? I really don't think-" Scarlet was cut off by the pichu.

"It's amnesia, but don't worry, I'll take care of you. I'm Tekka, by the way, if you can't remember that," the pichu bounded a few feet across the room and jumped onto Scarlet's shoulder.

"No one can understand me except for you, so I can tell you everything you need to know," the pichu scurried up the side of Scarlet's head to perch on top.

"Alright….I guess," Scarlet said, then her brow furrowed, "How are we going to get this stuff out?" she brought up the dirty sleeve of her pajamas.

"There's a bathroom down the hall."

"OK," Scarlet walked to the door and opened it as Tekka whispered directions into her ear.

"To the left. No! I mean right! Right!" Tekka seemed to have less of a sense of direction than Scarlet did.

Scarlet pulled the door open. She froze with the door halfway open.

"What's wrong now?" Tekka leaned forward from her seat and made an attempt to view Scarlet's bewildered face.

"It's just….so….pink!"

Tekka snorted, "It's always been like that, hurry up!"

Scarlet immediately complied with Tekka's command, closing the door behind her so that they were both engulfed in the pink and fluffy objects in the room. Scarlet's eyes narrowed at the pink tinted glass of the mirror to her right.

She was a positive mess and the pink didn't help with her appearance at all. Her hair was messed up and in odd angles from just waking up and she could see small pink zits standing out on her pale skin that were made worse by the mirror's own magenta shade. Paired with her soiled pajamas, Scarlet was a sight to see.

"Who decorated this place?" Scarlet asked glaring at the pink painted walls in disgust.

"Your brother, it's a long story," Tekka said after seeing Scarlet's face in the mirror, "We have to be clean in time for breakfast, today's the annual trainer reunion and you can't be late again."

Scarlet nodded as she searched a countertop underneath the mirror for soap. They were all pink and had been molded to look like roses. Scarlet grabbed one and Tekka jumped off of her head, grabbing another one.

"It's all mascara, so you'll have to scrub really hard," Tekka informed her.

Scarlet nodded again and reached out to turn on the water, the knobs were both in rose shapes and a marble like pink. She turned the hot water on and started scrubbing her pajamas.

"Why were you wearing makeup?" Scarlet asked after a minute of trying to get a stain out of her right sleeve.

"Because I'm depressed, and I have to make that known to everyone," Tekka stated.

"You're depressed?"

"I am. It's because I was made through an action replay, and I never should have existed, it's quite tragic," Tekka splashed her face with steaming water, causing a few sparks of electricity to go through the water.

"But that doesn't make much sense….."

"A lot of people say that, and you know, it's very offensive," the pichu sniffed.

Scarlet shrugged, dropping the subject. It would be better to stay on Tekka's good side rather than to risk anything.

Half an hour had went by and Scarlet was having no success with the stains. They were all over the front of her pajama still, and even with the help of Tekka, they just faded to a dull gray and stood out against the cream fabric that made up her top. Scarlet sighed.

"It's not coming out."

"Yeah, thanks for stating the obvious," Scarlet said.

The pichu just jumped closer to the mirror and started brushing the fur on her head up with her paws.

"What are you doing?" Scarlet asked.

"Putting up my fohawk," the pichu answered. Scarlet decided not to investigate.

"What time is it?" Scarlet asked.

"Almost breakfast, I can smell the pancakes downstairs," Tekka said and looked up from her hair styling.

The odor of the soap that they had been using earlier had seemed to have replaced Scarlet's sense of smell, and she decided to take Tekka's word for there being breakfast.

Tekka gave a satisfied glance at the mirror and hopped back onto Scarlet's shoulder, "Let's go."

"Where?" Scarlet asked, turning the rose shaped door handle and stepping out into the plain brown hallway.

"Back into your room, you forgot to pack."

"Oh," was Scarlet's whispered reply as she walked towards the door of her room and turned another door handle, this time a worn down metal one.

As Scarlet came into the room, a small sigh escaped her lips and she leaned back on the wooden door, enveloping into the more familiar surroundings.

"You've got to pack your backpack, it's in the closet," Tekka told her.

"Hmmm," Scarlet mused as she searched the room and as her eyes fell upon a small door in the wall near her bed.

Scarlet walked over to the door and pulled it open, this time there was no knob and the door has a simple hole cut out of the wood where the handle should have been.

The closet itself was small, barely big enough for a person to walk into, and definitely not big enough to fit some of the wardrobes people tended to keep. The stuff inside the closet, however, was enormous. It reminded Scarlet of the time she had to clean underneath her bed one summer, with junk in large cluttered piles, and a few rotting items of food scattered here and there. The closet didn't seem to have any clothing from what Scarlet could see, except for an old Halloween costume of a bunny that must have been from several years ago. The backpack was sitting on top of all the junk, empty and ready to be packed.

Scarlet grabbed the backpack, and quickly shut the door. She tossed the backpack onto her bed and went to the dresser, where it was still sitting in its spot against the wall.

"What do I need?"

Tekka sat in though for a few moments, leaning against the side of Scarlet's head, "Clothes, compass, computer stuff, food, knife, food, blankets, money, food, clothes, pokeballs, items, food, clothes, food, and anything else you can fit in there."

"How much food do we need?" Scarlet asked as she searched through the dresser drawers.

"A lot," Tekka answered, "enough for at least two weeks."

Scarlet nodded as she pushed aside a few photographs in a drawer. Everything seemed to be mixed in with pictures; they even covered the clothes (which Scarlet found to be almost exactly like her clothes at home with a few exceptions) that Scarlet had found, wrinkled and unkempt from being thrust into the drawers. There was a drawer filled to the brim with pictures that Scarlet had a hard time trying to stuff back into the dresser.

"What kind of clothes should I bring?" Scarlet asked, holding up a pair of jeans that had wires in them to make them flare out at odd angles, one of the exceptions she had found.

"Anything, and you might want a jacket too, we'll probably be going to some mountains."

Scarlet pushed the pants into a random drawer and started pulling out random clothes. She put a small clump of clothes on top of the dresser for her to change into after packing.

"I'll go get the computer," Tekka said and scurried down Scarlet's arm, across the carpet, and under the bed.

"Should I really be bringing a computer with me?" Scarlet asked, taking a glance towards the large desktop in the corner.

"Yeah, you never got a pokedex, or a radio because you wanted a computer," came Tekka's muffled reply from under the bed.

"Oh," Scarlet said, "but then, what am I going to do with out a pokedex?"

"The computer has one in it," Tekka said as she emerged from under the bed, dragging out a small laptop.

"Oh, you meant a laptop! For a second I though you meant that thing," Scarlet pointed at the desktop.

"No, no, no," Tekka shook her head, making her ears flop around, "that's too big."

"It's late," Tekka said, making a gesture towards a digital alarm clock on the nightstand next to the bed, which was flashing '6:46AM'.

"It's not too late, it's still dark outside," Scarlet said, ignoring the numbers on the clock and staring out at the curtained window.

"That's because of daylight savings time, it used to be brighter," Tekka replied dully and jumped onto Scarlet's shoulder, "Let's go."

Scarlet sighed and stuffed the things she had gathered into the large backpack sitting on her bed. The backpack looked stuffed and twice as big as it should have been by the time she was done, but there was no use for organizing it now.

"What about those?" Scarlet pointed to the balls she had left in the corner, "Do I need a belt?"

"You use a fanny pack," Tekka jumped off Scarlet's shoulder and landed on the ground. She made a few bounds toward the dresser and opened one of the bottom drawers from which she pulled out a plain red fanny pack.

"Thanks," Scarlet said, taking the pack and scooping the balls into it.

Tekka leaped back to Scarlet and retook her place on Scarlet's shoulder, "Let's go."

And that was just what they did.

A/N: If anyone would like to submit characters, I'll be putting up a form at least by the next chapter, though you can submit a character ahead of time in a review if you really, really want to.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon, or any other copyrighted and published material in this story other than the situation and a few characters.

A/N: I want to thank the nice people that reviewed my first chapter!

Miaya-Chan: Thank you for being the first reviewer! I'll try to be as creative as possible through the whole fic.

fire spirit: I'm glad that you liked the story! I hope you read some more of it.

Ralph pulled a few branches out of his way. The trees here grew low to the ground and broad leaves obscured almost everything from view. The mud at his feet that sucked his boots into the ground so that he had to pull them out at every step was no help either.

Ralph pulled another branch out of his way, this time the forest of trees seemed to have ended, giving him a welcomed scene of a dirt path with no mud and only a few dying leaves littered the ground. He stepped out into the road and started walking down it, hoping for some buildings to be at the end of it.

"Hey, you!" a voice called out behind him.

As Ralph turned, he found a large teenager in front of him, who had to have been several years older.

"I want to battle," the burly teen said.

"Battle? What do you mean?" Ralph was bewildered by the stranger, who gave him a scowl.

"What, you haven't got any pokes?"

"Huh?" was Ralph's smart reply.

"Pokes, pokemon, whatever. You've got a backpack on, come on; you have to be a trainer!"

The teenager advanced toward him and Ralph backed away. The teen sighed.

"Check your backpack!" he barked, tired of Ralph's ignorance.

Ralph immediately swung his pack off his shoulders and opened it with shaking fingers, "I-I don't know what to look for."

"Let me see it," the teen sneered and grabbed the backpack from him.

It took a few moments of scavenging through Ralph's clothes, snacks, and other things before the teen finally brought out four balls.

"Are those-" Ralph started.

"Yeah, that's right, they're pokes. Now hurry up and let's battle," the teen threw Ralph's backpack and the four balls back at him. Ralph barely caught the balls and his backpack him the road, causing a cloud of dust to come up and make his eyes water.

The teen took one of his own pokeballs from his belt and maximized it before throwing it into the air. With a flash of light a large tauros appeared and started pawing the ground.

Ralph looked at his own pokeballs. They all luckily had labels engraved on them so that he wouldn't be choosing randomly. He read each label carefully and tried to remember what the names referred to. There was Waterfront, a goldeen he had gotten from his girlfriend, but she was still being trained and there was no water in sight for her to go in. He moved on to the next pokeball, it was Cheeze, one of his first rattata and now a high level raticate. He threw the ball into the air.

The flash of light appeared just as it had with the tauros and the ball bounced back to Ralph where it was caught in his hand.

Ralph got his first look at Cheeze. He was small, extremely small, even for a raticate. The small being chattered loudly in front of the tauros towering over it. Ralph was sure that the other pokemon, or poke, as the teen called them, could easily kill Cheeze with one of his large hooves. Ralph was at a loss for words, the teen wasn't.

The teen laughed loudly, "Mustang'll destroy that pipsqueak you've got there."

Mustang snorted and pawed the ground heavily in response.

Cheeze didn't look in the least bit frightened. He continued chattering and glared at Mustang instead.

"Mustang, horn attack!" the teen screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Uh, um," Ralph stuttered, "Cheeze, super fang."

The pokemon both attacked at once, unfortunately for Mustang, Cheeze was faster. He raced up the tauros's leg and swiftly jumped onto its head and bit down on the large hump of its back. The tauros screamed in pain and fury, tossing and turning in an attempt to get the raticate off. Cheeze seemed to be enjoying the bull ride thoroughly, even going as far as putting his hands up and squealing as though he were on a roller coaster.

The teen didn't look too happy, "Stop! Stop, roll over, Mustang, roll over!"

The tauros did as he was told and rolled on the dirt path, causing dust clouds to fill the air. Cheeze was already off the tauros's back and was squealing in laughter at Mustang.

"He's off, Mustang! Go and get him, do whatever it takes!" the teen screeched.

Mustang was already up, panting and heaving. Cheeze chattered loudly, daring the tauros to come closer. Mustang didn't have enough strength to, and collapsed on the ground, still panting.

The teen scoffed as he returned Mustang to his ball, "I'll beat you some day, you'll see."

Cheeze blew a raspberry at him and scurried back to Ralph where he returned to his ball himself.

The teen threw something on the ground before leaving. Ralph pushed his pokeballs into his backpack and shouldered the large load before he went to investigate. The teen seemed to have thrown a few bills on the ground that were each marked with an insignia of a pokeball. Ralph picked up the small wad and fingered them with interest.

Mitsuko lazily walked on the packed dirt paths of the town. She had had to haul herself out of bed that day, only to find that it wasn't her bed she was sleeping in, and it wasn't quite her house, which after finding that the room wasn't her room didn't surprise her. The large furry face of an eevee hovering over her didn't help much either.

Mitsuko rubbed at her eyes and she secretively took a glance of the creature on her shoulder. The eevee was looking the other way and was occupied watching a hypnotic barber shop decoration, spinning its red and white stripes behind them. Mitsuko was fairly sure this eevee was Syl, the action replay created pokemon she had spent days agonizing over what attacks to give.

"Oi, Syl, does Ralph live here?" Mitsuko asked, shaking Syl out of her daze.

The eevee blinked a few times and stared at Mitsuko for a second before wildly nodding her head.

That was another problem; Syl didn't seem able to speak. All she could do was nod or shake her head or, in some cases, she could try using something similar to sign language, though with Syl's paws she wasn't very adept at it.

The eevee nudged Mitsuko's face, this time breaking her out of a reverie. The eevee brought up her paw and pointed it toward a lone figure walking down the path with its back facing them. Mitsuko recognized the untidy hair on its head at once.

"Ralph! Ralph!" Mitsuko yelled.

Ralph turned around slowly with his face brightening as Mitsuko came flying toward him. He opened his arms welcomingly and braced himself. Mitsuko jumped into his arms and even though Ralph had been prepared, they both tumbled to the ground.

"Aiiiiii!" Mitsuko squealed, "I didn't think you would be here, it's so strange, I think we're in the pokemon world."

"Me too," Ralph replied.

"That's so weird! We were both thinking the same thing! We make such a good couple," Mitsuko hugged her boyfriend's head happily.

Ralph stood up, giving Mitsuko his hand as he did so. She pulled herself up too, and picked up Syl, who seemed to have missed the entire conversation and was, once again, staring at what she could see of the barber shop decorum.

"Sooooo, what do we do now?" Mitsuko asked.

"Find others?" Ralph suggested.

"Sure," Mitsuko grabbed his hand and started walking down the path.

"Wait, we don't even know where that leads to!"

"It doesn't matter," Mitsuko said, "we were both traveling in the same direction, odds are that other people are going to do the same thing and walk down this road."

Ralph shrugged, letting Mitsuko bring him to whatever would lie on the road ahead.

"I think we're lost," Scarlet said.

"Probably are," Tekka agreed, leaning off of Scarlet's shoulder and moving her face closer to the map in Scarlet's hands.

"Here, you know this town better than I do," Scarlet moved the map closer to Tekka.

"Yeah, but everything's changed overnight. It never had this many buildings in it before," Tekka waved her short arm around, pointing at all the identical looking two story houses.

Scarlet nodded, "Yeah, there's something fishy going on here."

Scarlet let out a long sigh and folded the map neatly. She started walking in a random direction.

"Have you figured it out yet?" Tekka asked.

"No, I'm just going to walk around and maybe we'll find the lab by accident," Scarlet replied.

"Or we could just ask Mitsuko," Tekka said.

"How are we going to do that? We can't even find a big lab in this place; I don't think we'll be able to find a person!"

"Over there," Tekka pointed to two people in front of them.

"Oh," Scarlet said.

She started running and shouting at them, "Mitsuko! Ralph!"

They turned around.

"Hi, Scarlet, we were just looking for you!" Mitsuko said, a large smile on her face.

"You were?" Scarlet asked, she was a bit surprised that Mitsuko had been looking for her, especially since they didn't get along as well as people thought.

"Yeah, we're looking for anyone we can recognize," Mitsuko replied. She took Scarlet's hand much in the same way she had taken Ralph's and proceeded in dragging both of them through the streets.

"I guess we're going off again," Tekka said.

"Is that a pichu? It's so cute," Mitsuko said without stopping her rapid pace or even glancing at Tekka.

"Yeah, how could you tell, you didn't even look at her?" Scarlet asked.

"Well, anyone can tell with the way that pokemon talk. They do repeat the syllables of their names, you know."

Scarlet considered it for a moment. Mitsuko must not have understood Tekka if she had heard the pichu only saying parts of 'pichu'. She silently wondered if she would be able to understand any other pokemon.

"-and you know, my Syl, here, is just sooooo cute. She doesn't say a word, but you can sorta understand her if you try hard enough," Mitsuko had been talking the whole time.

"Uh, yeah," a response came from the other side of Mitsuko. "I've got Cheeze, but he hasn't said anything to me either," Ralph added.

"See, I told you, they all seem to be the silent type," Mitsuko chattered on, Ralph's eyes glazed over as he thought of the resemblance between his girlfriend and Cheeze.

Scarlet was a bit more daring and took a stab at trying to change the subject into something more informative, "How did you get here?"

Mitsuko looked shaken for a moment and she stopped in her tracks, forcing the two glued to her hands to halt also. She regained herself and started walking again before answering with a long winded reply, "I have no idea. You know, I just woke up in a weird place. It was kinda creepy because it reminded me of home, but it was completely different, then there were the people too. And, you know, Syl (at this point Mitsuko used her head to make a gesture towards the eevee on her shoulder), was right there in my face when I woke up, she nearly scared me to death. I went downstairs, and I found this weird lady that thought she was my mom telling me to pack or I would be late. I just did what she told me to and she pushed me right out the door."

"The same thing happened to me too," Scarlet said then she turned to what she could see of Ralph on Mitsuko's right side, "Was it the same with you?"

"Uh, no," Ralph said, "I got stuck in the woods. I went out camping the day before with a few friends and when I woke up today I found myself in the middle of nowhere with my backpack. Everyone else was gone; I searched the whole place for them, before I found a road."

Scarlet tapped her chin in thought with her free hand.

"Maybe we were abducted by aliens," Mitsuko suggested.

Both her companions sighed.

"That building looks different," Tekka said, pointing to the top of what must have been a large building that towered over the tops of the houses.

Mitsuko and Ralph had a harder time understanding, and had to follow Tekka's arm. By the time they realized what Tekka had been telling them, Scarlet was already dragging both of them through the streets.

Scarlet turned a corner into what had looked like the place the building was situated only to run into a large crowd of people that blocked off the whole road in front of the building.

"What do we do now?" Mitsuko asked looking at Ralph then Scarlet for answers.

"Just wait," Scarlet said watching the crowd of bustling people that were trying to find the same answers they were.

A/N: I made the form! You can fill it out, and I'll make sure to get all the characters submitted into the story. You can add in as much information as you want. Here's the form:

Name:

Age:

Personality:

Appearance:

Pokemon (you can have more than one, but please don't put in too many . ):

Pokemon's personality (this is optional, and if you don't want to make one yourself, I can):

You can put submissions in reviews or e-mail me at the e-mail on my profile. I'll be putting in submitted characters in the next chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon. Sophia and her pokemon are owned by Fire Spirit and Ryan and his pokemon are owned by Bigfoot12310.

A/N: Just to let everyone know, this fic is based on all the pokemon games, not just one, so you don't have to have all Johto based pokemon. If anyone wants to add to their character, or change them in anyway, you can re-email me.

The crowd grew as the group of three continued to wait.

Ralph had a watch on his wrist, which both the girls had forgotten to pack, that the group watched tick softly as they waited. According to the hands of the devise, it was 7:49AM and slowly approaching eight.

Both Tekka and Syl were leaning against the groups' backpacks and were dozing peacefully, as a few others in the crowd had chosen to do, some going as far as taking out a blanket and snoring loudly. Most of the others in the crowd had chosen to sit down and wait, as Ralph, Mitsuko, and Scarlet had decided to. A few lone souls had stayed standing and stuck out among their peers.

"You know, it's really quiet," Mitsuko turned away from the clock to view her two companions.

After years of knowing Mitsuko and the habits she tended to have, Scarlet knew that the best option would be to give her the silent treatment and allow her to rant on about a subject until she got tired. Ralph didn't have as much experience or knowledge when it came to Mitsuko.

"Yeah, it is," he said.

As Mitsuko's smile grew larger and larger, Ralph didn't know whether to smile with her or be afraid.

"I know, I mean, everyone's just sitting there and, you know, the ones that are standing are more like statues than people," Mitsuko paused here and stared meaningfully at Ralph.

'Don't answer, don't answer, don't answer…' Scarlet repeated over and over again in her head.

Ralph nodded in response and Mitsuko took this as a sign he was interested in the subject. She chattered on making Scarlet groan and Ralph look between the two females bewilderedly.

"Uh, Mitsuko," Scarlet said. Mitsuko stopped jabbering and stared at her.

"Uh, um, here, Tekka," she took the half-asleep pichu and thrust it into Mitsuko's arms, "isn't she cute? Why don't you play with her?"

Tekka was giving Scarlet a look that let her know how much she would suffer later on.

Mitsuko looked at the pichu in her lap, cuddling it and flattening its fohawk, "What kind of clothes are you wearing, Scarlet? You look like you're in a gang or something."

Scarlet groaned again in despair before the question registered in her mind.

"Hey, what do you mean? Your clothes are worse than mine," Scarlet retorted.

"Yeah, but you're wearing all blue, people are going to think you're in a gang," Mitsuko patted Tekka's head.

Scarlet looked down at the outfit she was sporting. It was plain, but all blue, a forget-me-not blue sweatshirt, blue jeans, and even semi-blue and white shoes. To tell the truth, Scarlet had also had gangs in mind when she had put on the clothes, and had used a bright red ribbon to tie up her hair with in an attempt to show she was not situated with either red or blue gang.

"Your clothes are worse," Scarlet stated weakly.

"Yeah, well, they're in style here," Mitsuko waved her hand around the gathered crowd that had surrounded them at all sides as it had grown.

Scarlet could see it was true. Mitsuko had on ridiculously flared out bell bottoms that probably had some sort of wire in them to even allow them to be fluttering almost parallel to the ground after looking at the crowd Scarlet saw that every other person was wearing something as ridiculous or something worse. A small bright yellow tank top with bright blue lace streaming over it barely covered her arms, making Scarlet sigh as Scarlet knew that she would freeze to death; it was the middle of winter, it seemed that other people would freeze too, half the people Scarlet could see in the crowd had things on that didn't cover their arms and, in some cases, stomach.

"Fine, you win, can you stop criticizing me now?"

"Sure," Mitsuko said, then she went on to talk about Ralph's clothes, which were torn and muddy from scouting wild terrain.

Scarlet sighed in relief and took Tekka's place next to the pile of backpacks where Syl was still sleeping soundly. Tekka was still in Mitsuko's hands and was flashing Scarlet mean looks that would have made any other person start praying for mercy.

"-I mean, you should really change them," Mitsuko's one sided conversation went on as Scarlet closed her eyes.

"Wake up, Scarlet!" Mitsuko called out, shaking her friend awake.

"W-what?" Scarlet opened her eyes.

"Some professor-dude just came out of the building, and they're getting stuff out of a big truck," Mitsuko said.

Scarlet looked toward the building, where sure enough, there were people rushing around, trying to stave off curious people and their pokemon who had gathered closer and, at the same time, were trying to set up equipment. A large truck was parked next to the building where a few dozen people in lab coats were rushing to and fro, sometimes bringing out one of their pokemon to help carry out heavier things.

Scarlet turned back to Mitsuko to ask further questions only to find that she was busy waking Ralph up from his nap.

"They're all getting ready for a big announcement, I heard," a girl sitting beside Scarlet whispered.

"What kind of announcement?" Scarlet asked.

"Oh, I don't know, it was just a rumor," the girl replied, "name's Sophia, by the way."

"Scarlet."

"Nice to meet you. That's Espy, by the way," Sophia said, pointing to an espeon next to her that made a small mewing sound and climbed into Sophia's lap, "And him, over there," Sophia pointed to an umbreon, "is Twilight."

Twilight's eyes looked over Scarlet quickly before he looked away without a word.

"He's been in a bad mood today, don't mind him," Sophia explained.

Scarlet nodded.

"Hey, Scarlet, I think they're almost done, and, you know, your pichu is acting really weird," Mitsuko called out to her, she had some how moved further into the crowd and was holding Tekka under her arm like a book.

"I'm coming," Scarlet called back, then she said to Sophia, "Sorry, but I have to go. Bye."

"Bye," Sophia said.

Espy mewed cheerily and made an attempt to wave her paw in farewell. Twilight just sat next to Sophia silently and glared while Scarlet tiptoed around sitting people.

"Mitsuko," Scarlet scolded when she reached her companions, "what have you done with Tekka?"

"Uh," Mitsuko glanced at the fainted pichu in under her arm, "nothing much, I just gave her some soda and stuff."

Scarlet sighed, taking the pichu from Mitsuko and made a mental note not to give Tekka soda.

"Did you give her anything else?" Scarlet asked.

"Just some-," Mitsuko was cut off by a loud noise behind them.

"Ladies and gentlemen," someone said into a microphone. The voice was so loud it echoed through the streets and made a few people in their homes look out their windows.

There were scratching noises that made several pokemon with sensitive ears jump as the person did something that Scarlet couldn't see. A few more horrifyingly loud noises came from the microphone before a large screen lit up off to the side of the building.

"W-we have encountered some phenomena that seems to have affected several altering realities, all different from one another. The solution to this presented problem is being researched as I make this announcement, and the government has already taken action by creating a short film that should explain to you what precautions should be taken in this situation," a wiry young man in a lab coat walked across the stage shakily and started operating a device next to him.

Several seconds passed as people shuffled around and started to stand, a few people were still sleeping and were unaware of what was occurring. The screen flickered and was brought to life, showing a severe looking woman staring out at them.

"Hello, I am Gemini Maris, the current Head of Science and Foreign Affairs Department in the government. We have created this film to inform you all of the phenomena that has lead you all to be here. Alternate universes that have been in co-existence since the beginning of time have flowed into each other, causing the events that are occurring now. This place exists in one alternate universe as a popular game that most of you know as pokemon. The merging of several alternate universes has caused pokemon from games to be united with their trainers from another alternate universe and has brought all of you into this world," the screen's image changed into a scene of a forest where a pokecenter was nestled in between a few trees, and the woman continued, "We have estimated that the population has nearly quadrupled from pokemon and people coming here through alternate universes, which has caused us to take some precautionary measures in order to maintain a working system. The use of PCs is prohibited for all trainers until next week and several once public places will be off-limits to everyone except for those who have permission from the government. Also, pokecenter funding will be increased and ships to take trainers into other regions will be built. Trainers without licenses will be required to register at the appropriate locations. Please understand that these precautions are for your own benefit and abide to them fully."

The screen went blank and whispering in the crowd increased immediately. The man in the lab coat tapped his microphone and loud screeching noises made the whispers subside.

"The lab has been designated as an area for trainers to obtain their licenses, if you already have a license please continue your journeys, further information will be released through your radios on channel one," the man walked away from the microphone and into the lab, followed by several others in lab coats while their pokemon started putting equipment away.

"What did he say? I didn't catch any of it," Mitsuko said.

"How did you miss any of that?" Scarlet asked, "It practically echoed through the streets!"

Mitsuko smiled sheepishly, "I just sorta stopped listening after science…"

Scarlet sighed and rolled her eyes, it was typical of Mitsuko to go off daydreaming when it came to any subject related to school. Scarlet prepared herself to make a summary of the things said. Ralph beat her to it.

"They just said that our universe and a few others mixed together and brought us here, and that we can't use the PCs for a week. We might have to register too, unless we already have licenses," Ralph said.

"Licenses?" Mitsuko repeated the last word, then she swung her backpack off her shoulder and started digging through it frantically, Scarlet saw that several others in the crowd were doing the same.

"What are you-," Scarlet started to ask, but was interrupted by a cry of triumph from Mitsuko as she brought out a small laptop computer.

"I've got one of those too," Scarlet said, shifting Tekka from one arm to the other and grabbing her backpack from the ground and stuffing her hand randomly into it, "it's somewhere in here…"

"They're new technology, a combination of a pokedex, radio, map, and pretty much everything, including a trainer ID and license," Mitsuko explained.

Scarlet narrowed her eyes at Mitsuko suspiciously as she tried pulling her own laptop out of her backpack futilely, "Since when do you know so much about computers in alternate universes?"

"Since my fake mom was pushing me out the door and screaming at me at the top of her lungs about how I should take care of something so useful and expensive," Mitsuko informed Scarlet.

Mitsuko turned to Ralph, who had also started searching through his backpack, "Do you have one?"

"Yeah, I just found it," he pulled out a silver laptop that gleamed in the sun.

"Does everyone else have one too?" Scarlet asked and looked into the crowd.

"Yeah, I guess so," Mitsuko said, she was glaring at a girl with the same clothes as her that had just pulled a laptop out of a small hand knit bag.

Ralph started trying to divert his girlfriend's attention to explaining the features of the laptop again when he saw Mitsuko's cold stare.

Scarlet sighed and shifted the still fainted Tekka once again so that she could put her backpack back on. Tekka didn't look anywhere close to waking up, or talking and Scarlet wasn't too keen on being sucked into another one of Mitsuko's unending one sided conversations or sparking Mitsuko's jealousy by talking to Ralph. She decided to plague random strangers around her instead.

"Hey," Scarlet said to a boy that was busy looking through features on his laptop.

The boy looked at her expectantly and Scarlet smiled cheerily, "Do you want to try battling?"

"Oh, sure," the boy said. He opened the flap of a messenger bag and pulled out three pokeballs from it.

Scarlet shifted Tekka once more and unzipped her fanny pack, taking five pokeballs out of it, leaving Tekka's ball inside.

A few people cleared away as the boy pressed the button of one of his greatballs.

"I have to warn you," the boy smirked haughtily, "my pokemon are all powerful, and unless you've got a level one hundred, you don't have a chance beating them."

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," Scarlet smiled.

The boy gave Scarlet's smile a confused glance before he regained himself and said, "So, what's the name of the trainer I'm beating this time?"

"Scarlet," she said, "and yours?"

"Drek, Ryan Drek," he said and threw the greatball into the air and with a small burst of light, a pidgeotto stood in front of them.

Scarlet took a regular pokeball and threw it into the air. Another burst of light followed and Ryan doubled over, laughing at Scarlet's furret. The furret was wearing a bright pink dress and had comically started twirling around like a ballerina. Scarlet herself had to fight the urge to giggle.

"W-what kind of pokemon is that!" Ryan jeered.

Scarlet pouted, "He's a level one hundred pokemon, that's what he is."

Ryan seemed to gain a bit more respect after the statement, "Are you sure? How do I know you're not lying?"

Scarlet opened her mouth to answer when two small ringing noises came, as if on cue, from Ryan and Scarlets' laptops.

Both the trainers opened their laptops at the same time to see the same information. Profiles of both trainers and the pokemon they currently had flickered on the screen. An image of Ryan's pidgeotto had a flashing 'Lv. 54' next to it and Scarlet smirked as she saw her own furret on the screen with a 'Lv. 100'.

"Is that proof enough?" Scarlet asked.

"Uh, yeah," Ryan looked like he was in shock, as though he had not really expected a level one hundred pokemon, he once again regained himself and yelled to his pidgeotto, "Wing Attack!"

The pidgeotto flapped its wings, releasing two whirlwinds and directing them towards Scarlet's furret. The furret was caught in them while he was still twirling and doing ballet exercises and was blown into a group of by standing trainers.

"Wess!" Scarlet cried out as some HP disappeared out of a bar on her laptop.

Ryan smirked once again, "Not so tough are ya?"

"Wess!" Scarlet called out, and the disheveled furret emerged from underneath a pile of trainers that had fallen on top of him.

Wess stood up and brushed himself off with his paws, paying more attention to his dress than to the pidgeotto that was waiting eagerly to finish the battle. The furret looked over his dress carefully, looking for any rips or tears while the pidgeotto looked to Ryan for further instruction.

"Pidgeotto, Hy-," Ryan was cut off by an earsplitting screech that had come from Wess.

The furret had found a rip in his dress and was sticking his paw through it; tears were welling up in his eyes as though he were mourning the pink fabric. Wess glared at the pidgeotto in hatred. He let out a long battle cry and attacked. The first swipe missed by a whole foot as the pidgeotto dodged it and flew higher. A gaping mark was left on the ground as the furret prepared for another attack.

Ryan called his pidgeotto back before Wess could try dealing the blow. The furret bared his teeth, this time at the trainer, and ran rapidly toward him. Scarlet recalled Wess and sighed in relief when she saw that Ryan was still intact.

"I'm not battling you anymore; you can't even control your pokemon!" Ryan stomped off into the crowd, and was closely followed by a large group of girls asking him to recount the event they had already witnessed themselves, and interestingly enough, a smaller group of males also followed him.

Scarlet was shocked, partly by the abrupt ending of the match, and partly by Wess. She had never though of him as vengeful when she had been training him in her pokemon game. He had seemed more of the lazy type, attacking second, and not living up to the millions of items she had wasted in an attempt to make him go faster. When he was hit, though, he would go faster and had a talent for knocking out other pokemon in less than two turns, now that Scarlet knew the reason why, she felt a slight sinking sensation in her stomach as she thought of the raging creature in the ball that she was holding that could become violent because of a dress.

"Hey, Scarlet," Mitsuko came flying at her back and hugged her from behind, nearly choking her, "We saw it! Your first battle! I have to have one too, Ralph says he already battled with someone, and I want to try too."

Scarlet pried herself loose from Mitsuko's grasp and stepped out of arm's distance, "Yeah, sure," she panted, shifting Tekka once again to put away Wess's ball and to put away some of her thoughts to the back of her mind.

"Great, let's go!" Mitsuko stepped toward Scarlet and tugged at her arm, also ensnaring an unexpecting Ralph next to her.

A/N: That's it for now! If your character isn't in this chapter, please don't be offended, I'm still trying to work some of them into the plot. Also, I want to warn people that some characters will play bigger roles than others in the fic, and that some characters will probably reappear more than once. If it irks anyone too much that their character only had a paragraph long debut, you can send me an e-mail about it, or put it in a review.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: As usual, I do not own pokemon. Ava is owned by Miaya-chan and Danny is owned by Nightshadegirl.

Mitsuko dragged them through the crowd. A lot of people had formed into smaller groups with pokemon battling each other in the middle. Others had started to panic, running around and screaming about the end of the world and that pokemon didn't exist. A few people wandered around from place to place, probably searching for someone to battle just as Mitsuko was doing.

After several minutes of dodging around people through the crowd, Mitsuko found her battle.

"I want to battle her!" Mitsuko said, she was pointing in the direction of a group, a bit bigger than the ones they had passed earlier. In the middle a pikachu was battling a kyogre that was at least twenty times bigger and casting a large shadow on the onlookers and making it rain heavily.

The pikachu was clutching the kyogre's back as it thrashed about and tried attacking what it could not see. A large volt of lightening came down from the sky, lighting up the whole street. Several people looked out of their windows, yelling obscenities and telling the trainers to battle somewhere else, while other trainers rushed to see what had happened in the battle. The kyogre was a smoking mass in the middle of the road and the pikachu was looking on at the audience in triumph.

The pikachu hopped away from the kyogre and jumped into the hands of a teenage girl slightly older than them while the beaten trainer took out their pokeball and returned their kyogre to it with a flash of light. The girl was praising the pikachu and petting it lovingly, Scarlet shifted the still unconscious Tekka self-consciously.

"Are you sure?" Ralph asked, "You've never battled here before, and it's completely different from the games."

Mitsuko shrugged off Ralph's warning, "It doesn't matter, I'm not battling to win."

Scarlet stared at Mitsuko, it was unusual for her to have said anything like that, Mitsuko always had battled to win in the games, it seemed out of character for her. Scarlet started to ask Mitsuko a question when the girl raced off, making a beeline for the girl holding the pikachu.

A few words seemed to have been exchanged by the time Scarlet and Ralph had caught up with her and both the girls looked ready to battle, with their pokeballs out.

"My name's Mitsuko, by the way."

The girl nodded, "Danny."

Both girls threw out their pokeballs. A combusken appeared and went into an immediate fighting stance; a large metal contraption was strapped to its back that looked like it slowed the pokemon's movements. Mitsuko's pokeball opened next, releasing a latias that Scarlet could remember battling once while the pokemon had still been in their games.

Scarlet whipped open her laptop that she had kept folded under her armpit next to Tekka. The screen came to life and posted both the pokemon's information. The combusken was level 45 and Mitsuko's latias was level 47. Scarlet doubted Mitsuko would win this part of the match, type advantage or not, she had just started training the latias only a few days ago and had never memorized a type chart, favoring a practice of randomly selecting attacks and learning through experience.

"Chaos, slash," Danny ordered her combusken.

Chaos ran awkwardly with the metal brace attached to him, and was slow enough to give time to Mitsuko to order her latias.

"Lati-chan," Mitsuko squealed appallingly, she barely even knew Japanese from what Scarlet could tell, "Do the wave."

Chaos had already gotten to Lati by the time Mitsuko had stopped talking and had given the latias a gaping wound. The latias shivered slightly and tears welled up in her eyes. The latias started crying like a baby as it flooded the whole road. A few battles nearby were half a foot in water and the group that had gathered around them was soaking wet up to their waists, Scarlet had had to hold her laptop higher up since she was afraid the water might get in it.

Chaos was still standing when the floods died down, but was damp and his movement was further restricted by the water up to his feet. Lati was still crying, but was still hovering slightly above the waves.

"Slash again, Chaos!" Danny yelled over the sound of rushing water that was disappearing into sewers.

Chaos readied himself to attack again as Lati started wailing loudly.

"Lati! Surf again!" Mitsuko all but begged. Her words were lost in Lati's wailing that was reaching an amazingly high pitch.

Chaos attacked and Lati slumped to the ground, creating a loud splash as she hit was remained of the water. Mitsuko sighed and returned Lati to her ball, "I guess you win."

Danny looked slightly surprised, "Don't you have any more pokemon?"

"I do, but I need to keep them from battling for a while," Mitsuko said, then she walked away before Danny could question her further.

"You could have beaten her pokemon, and you know it!" Scarlet said when Mitsuko came back to them.

Mitsuko shrugged, and stared back at Danny, who was being overwhelmed by requests and demands being made by trainers gathered around her. Chaos was right beside her with a few trainers that were looking at him in admiration with their pokemon.

"You know, I didn't even know Lati would be like that," Mitsuko said, "I always thought they would all be different."

"What do you mean?" Ralph asked, he looked worried. Mitsuko almost never said anything close to serious, even through the years Scarlet had known her.

"Well, I mean, they kinda acted different from what I thought they would. I mean, Syl's mute and Lati cries the first time I use her in battle. What will my other pokemon be like? I've got a few powerful enough to destroy a city in a day, and so have all these other people around me, and it could all depend on the pokemon's mood, they have a bad day, and you're dead," Mitsuko went silent after that, only replying by nodding and shaking her head.

Ralph sighed, "Let's go get lunch."

"Sure," Scarlet replied, she looked to Mitsuko expecting her to at least say 'yes'. Mitsuko just nodded her head silently and hugged Syl, who had moved from her usual post on Mitsuko's shoulders into Mitsuko's arms.

The group sat down quickly at an empty table. Over crowding was a big problem, lines stretched out for at least a block, and it was nearly impossible to find a seat, there were people sitting on the ground and eating. Even after getting a table, there were still problems from the previous occupants.

"Ew," Scarlet scrunched up her nose as her elbow landed in a puddle of ketchup.

Tekka hopped down from Scarlet's shoulder, grabbing a napkin from the food tray Ralph had set down, and handed it to Scarlet. As they had waited in the long line to order food Tekka had miraculously woken up without much memory of what Mitsuko had done to her, and was still trying to catch up to all the events that had occurred earlier.

Scarlet mopped the ketchup off her arm. Once it was gone she was still left with a sticky, unclean feeling, but she knew from looking at a long line to the bathroom that she wouldn't be able to wash it off anytime soon.

Mitsuko was dusting off a few bread crumbs on the other side of the table and speaking non-stop to Ralph, she seemed to have gone back to normal again, "And, you know, you could have waited for me before you had your first battle, I would have watched."

"It just all went so fast…" Ralph replied as soon as Mitsuko found that she had to take a breath before speaking further.

"But it's such a waste," Mitsuko slumped down into her chair, "I wanted to see you battle, I was sure you'd be good at it."

Ralph sat down next to her, "Don't worry, there are plenty of other battles, the first isn't always the most important."

Mitsuko looked satisfied with the answer, and she showed it by swapping saliva without a single thought to Scarlet, who was sitting next to them.

Scarlet looked away. Mitsuko never had learned common courtesy when it came to her friends, or to anyone really.

A girl passed by their table, she looked like she was in a daydream as she totted a small take-out bag and walked into the streets. A magnium that was wearing a large sombrero followed her and sounded like it was humming the Mexican Hat Dance loudly.

Scarlet took another glance at the two next to her to see if they had finished. They weren't, and to her astonishment she saw that Tekka was staring at the couple and chewing on chicken nuggets as though she were at a movie theater with popcorn.

"Tekka! What are you doing?" Scarlet cried out, and pulled Tekka off the table and into her lap.

"What? It was a good show," Tekka said.

Scarlet sighed, would all her pokemon be like this?

"Tekka, what's everyone else like?" Scarlet asked.

"Who?"

"Them," Scarlet pointed to her fanny pack.

"Oh, them. They're OK," Tekka said.

"No, I mean their personality, their habits, stuff like that," Scarlet said.

Tekka shrugged, "Well Wess always wears that pink dress…he won't take it off, that's how you two met too, he saw you wearing that dress when you were three and stole it when you changed clothes. Kawai, your cousin caught for you, and gave her to you, she's a weird one, and she likes using inline skates now too. Then there's Iron, he's another action replay created one, but he's not depressed, just overprotective. And Glide just loves chocolate, but you shouldn't give it to her. Whisp doesn't like you too much, you should stay away from her."

"Uh, yeah," Scarlet nodded, trying to memorize what Tekka had just said.

Scarlet stared out into the crowd for a moment, trying to think of something to do, Tekka was back to watching Mitsuko and Ralph, and Scarlet just didn't want to bother telling her to stop.

"I could ditch them," a fleeting thought came into her head, but was soon crushed as she saw the people streaming through the streets, she could get lost in there and then she would be alone.

A few words were being exchanged by the couple across the table that Scarlet could barely hear. Tekka's ears were swiveling around her head, no doubt trying to pick out a few phrases. She started humming a few songs from Phantom of the Opera, hoping that she would not hear anything.

The girl with the magnium passed by them again, this time pausing in her dream-like walk. She turned and stared directly at them. Scarlet squinted, she knew that girl from somewhere, and apparently the girl knew her too.

"Scarlet!" the girl said when she reached the table.

Scarlet smiled at the girl, "I can't believe you're here too!"

"Yeah, me neither, do you mind if I sit here? I've got only three of my pokemon, and I can't get to any PCs," the girl sat down next to Scarlet, ignoring the other two next to her that were still whispering to each other.

"This is Bloom," she nodded toward the magnium that had moved on to sing Under the Sea.

"Oh, yeah, that's Tekka," Scarlet poked her pichu, Tekka swatted Scarlet's hand away, but continued trying to hear the whispers.

Scarlet sighed, "She acts like it's a TV show or something."

The girl laughed, "You should see my pokemon, they're a lot weirder than yours."

Scarlet shrugged, "So, where are you going now Ava?"

Ava's eyes took on a bit of a dreamy look, "I've been thinking about settling down somewhere here, it would be like a fairytale if it weren't so crowded," she gazed off into the distance, through the crowds and somewhere over the horizons.

"We're going to have to stop somewhere, do you want to come with us for a while?" Scarlet snapped Ava out of her daydream.

"Hm? Sure, but we can't go camping yet, I still need a sleeping bag and the store was almost empty," Ava said.

"That's OK, I think we all forgot to pack sleeping bags too," Scarlet said.

A/N: Sorry this was a bit late; I couldn't log on for a while.


	5. Chapter 5

Scarlet pulled a rope. It rang, but people still rushed away, going to do other things.

The three had gone to the closest pokemon center they could find that wasn't full, along with Ava. They came across several centers, apparently several had mysteriously appeared and people blamed the alternate universes for them. All the centers were essentially the same, people rushing around, a few chansies here and there, and a large crowd of trainers trying to get rooms and heal pokemon. The only difference in this center was that there were slightly fewer people and that all the doors were made of thin Japanese styled sliding paper that left little room for privacy.

After a long wait of five minutes that could have been eternity to the group, someone finally came to greet them. Scarlet recognized that someone.

"Sofia?" Scarlet inquired.

Sofia nodded. She had her espeon and umbreon out next to her on either side, and Scarlet doubted she would have remembered the girl if she had not seen the pokemon.

Sofia smiled, "I got a job here for a while. It's temporary, but the center needed help," Sofia turned to address her pokemon, "Didn't they?"

The espeon, Espy, if Scarlet remembered correctly, mewed in response and the umbreon, Twilight, stared and nodded silently. Sofia's smile grew broader.

"Do you need a room?" Sofia asked.

"Yeah, that's why we came here," Scarlet said.

"Follow me," Sofia said, and she turned to the right and walked into a hallway of the center, walking down it with her two pokemon following diligently after.

The group all crowded into the hall at once, while a few trainers that had just come in also took the rope and rang the bell, they were staring at the group with jealousy in their eyes.

The group had to dodge people crowding through the hall to get to another section of the center and was pushed to the side often, just keeping up with Sofia enough to be able to keep her in sight. Sofia was right at home in the place and was doing well, keeping a steady pace, while swerving every so often to let someone pass by.

Sofia finally stopped, letting the group have a few seconds to catch up to her where she was standing by a sliding door.

"Here's your room," she said cheerily, pushing the door open and letting them inside, "Now I have to get back to work, but everything you need should be in there," then she closed the door and was gone.

Mitsuko was the first to set her backpack down near a wall and look around the room dejectedly, "There aren't any beds."

"No, it's just all Japanese style, the beds are all folded up in closets in the day time, we have to get them out," Scarlet said as she looked at the tatami adorning the ground.

"Where are they?" Ava asked.

"In a closet, probably," Scarlet said after some thought.

"Like this one?" Ralph asked he was pulling back a cupboard with a sliding frame similar to the doors.

"Yeah, maybe," Scarlet walked to Ralph and started pulling out cots and blankets from the cupboard.

"Help me," she beckoned to the others, they rushed to her aid.

"It's pretty easy, take the cot thingy, unfold it, lay it on the ground and cover yourself with the blanket," Scarlet said demonstrating how to set up the beds.

Mitsuko grimaced when she saw the bed Scarlet made, "You mean we have to sleep on the ground?"

"That's right, and no complaining. You're the only one in the family that doesn't do it," Scarlet said.

"It's like a sleeping bag," Ava said, she had set up her bed after Scarlet and had released Bloom from her ball, who was cuddling up in the blankets happily.

"I guess it might be…." Mitsuko said, she started setting up her own bed and Ralph was helping her. Mitsuko was an expert at getting tangled in blankets and Ralph knew this.

"Hey, Scarlet, why do you know so much about Japanese culture?" Ralph asked.

"Because our family is Japanese," Scarlet said, pointing to Mitsuko and herself.

"You are?" Ava looked at them questioningly.

"Yeah, we're cousins. Her parents don't like Japan much, but I visit every once and a while," Scarlet said.

Ava looked at Scarlet and Mitsuko carefully, "You don't look Japanese at all."

"It's because we weren't the first generation to come here, so we have mixed heritage," Scarlet said.

"Yeah, it's our great grandparents that are in Japan, and they can't travel, so I've never met them," Mitsuko cut in, "Scarlet's the one who knows Japan."

Ava nodded then turned to Scarlet, "Can you teach me?"

"Sure," Scarlet said, she was used to being asked this, after a few years of Mitsuko constantly telling everyone she met about Japan and Scarlet knowing the language dozens of people asked her to teach them over the years. Scarlet didn't know if it was because of her teaching ability, or because of people loosing interest, but she never got anyone to learn more than two words.

"I think we should get to bed," Ralph said, he was checking his watch.

"Alright, but I want top bunk!" Mitsuko screamed and launched herself into her mess of blankets.

The rest followed with less enthusiasm and slipped into their own beds, with Ralph turning the light off when no one else wanted to walk over to the switch.

Ava rubbed her eyes and proceeded in typing things into her laptop with her one free hand. Bloom was lying next to her feet, and halfway under her chair, the sombrero was perched on top of Bloom's head and it was hard to tell whether Bloom was awake or sleeping. Either way Ava didn't want to disturb her.

"Hi!" Mitsuko squealed heartily, sliding an extra-large cup of coffee to Ava with so much force it nearly toppled over.

"Oh, hi," Ava said, glancing from her laptop to Mitsuko then back to her laptop again.

"So, what are you doing?" Mitsuko asked, leaning over Ava's shoulder to look at the bright laptop screen.

"Looking up a few things. We're probably going to be here for a long time, and I want to look for a job."

"Oh," Mitsuko said, then she went away in the direction where Ralph was trying to precariously juggle breakfast food. She didn't seem to want to think about jobs.

The next person to come was Scarlet. She was carrying a tray of food smaller than the one Ralph had had, and was balancing a small pitcher of orange juice and a disgruntled looking Tekka in her arms.

"Tekka lost her mascara, have you seen it?" Scarlet asked as she pushed the food tray on the table Ava was sitting at.

"No," Ava answered.

Scarlet sat down, planting Tekka and the pitcher on the table, "Oh, what are you doing?"

Ava sighed and passed her laptop to Scarlet.

"So you want to be a professor?" Scarlet asked.

Ava shrugged, "Maybe, it's something to be if training doesn't work," she said though inside she was already imagining all the things she could do as a professor, the children's faces as she would hand them their first ball, the thousands of pokemon that she would be taking care of, the research she would do….

"It looks like a good job, but you'll need to pass a test to become one," Scarlet passed back Ava's laptop and whipped her own laptop out of her backpack and started typing into it at a furious pace.

"All the jobs require everyone to pass tests," Ava said.

Scarlet looked up from her typing, "Really?"

"Really."

"Oh," Scarlet closed her laptop and placed it back into her backpack, "Even to be a gym leader?"

"I think so," Ava said, "but the test is just beating a government employee's pokemon to show that you have some skill in battling."

Scarlet smiled, "I can do that."

"Why? Do you pl-," Ava was interrupted by Mitsuko and Ralph arriving at the table.

Mitsuko slammed a tray she had been carrying down on the table with a loud 'thunk'. Ralph put his tray on the table and sunk into a chair in relief.

"These things are heavy!" Mitsuko said.

"That's because you got so much food," Scarlet replied, she was eyeing a piece of chocolate covered toast moodily, and trying to keep Tekka from eating it at the same time.

"Come on, it's not that much. We need to take food with us anyway."

"I doubt that a cream filled donut is going to survive on the road," Scarlet said.

"It might," Ralph tried defending Mitsuko weakly. He was rewarded by a smile from Mitsuko and a death glare from Scarlet.

Scarlet sighed, "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Mitsuko smiled triumphantly and dug into her tray along with Tekka and Ralph. Scarlet sighed again in response.

"Are you coming with us or taking the test?" Scarlet asked Ava, who had gone back to her laptop.

"I'm not sure…..where are you going?"

"Probably the other regions the government told us about," Scarlet said after some thought.

"You mean the one they mentioned in the video earlier?" Ava asked.

"Yeah, but I don't know where we could find a dock to get on a boat," Scarlet replied.

"Wait one second," Ava pressed a few buttons on her laptop, "there's one in Olivine."

"I guess that's where we're going," Scarlet said, then she looked back to Mitsuko and Ralph, who were focused on their food and were oblivious to the conversation going on at the other side of the table, "or at least I am."

Ava nodded, "Well, I have to go to Pallet to take the test."

"When will you go?"

"Probably this afternoon, as soon as I get my supplies," Ava said.

"Oh," Scarlet's face fell, "So I guess this is going to be good bye?"

"Only for a short time, I'm going to travel after the test. I might not even become a professor, I might just stay a trainer, but there are already so many out there…." Ava trailed off as she looked into the crowds hurrying by their table, all of them looked like trainers.

"Yeah…." Scarlet said, also watching the trainers go by and disappear from sight.

"Hey, Earth to you two!" Mitsuko shouted from across the table, she was stuffing candy and the remainder of her breakfast into her backpack, Scarlet sighed at the sight.

"What?"

"We have to get going if we want to get to Olivine before we all grow old!"

Scarlet was taken back by Mitsuko's answer. She hadn't thought that Mitsuko actually listened to anything while she was eating.

"Where?" Ralph and Tekka asked simultaneously, apparently they couldn't multi-task as well as Mitsuko.

"We're going to Olivine and going to the new region, or whatever," Mitsuko said.

"We have to get supplies soon," Scarlet said as she picked up Tekka and stood up to leave.

"We have to get into line now, or we'll be stuck outside until midnight," Ava said.

"Alright," Mitsuko turned to Ralph, "Are you ready?"

Ralph nodded in affirmative and stood up, picking up and zipping his backpack that was filled with some of their breakfast, there was a small crunching sound that Scarlet suspected to be potato chips.

"Which way do we go?" asked Ralph.

"That way," Ava pointed down the street, wizened from studying the various maps stored in her laptop.


	6. Chapter 6

Scarlet sighed as she sunk down into a chair. The group was back at the same place that they had been in that morning, though at a different table, the old one had already been taken. They had finally finished with shopping and were stopping to eat, having forgotten to get any breakfast at the center; it had showed when Tekka's stomach had growled suddenly when they were about to leave the town with their supplies.

Over crowding had slowly disappeared. People were already leaving for other towns, other regions, and the crowds were slowly dissipating.

"I don't know why we have to get more food, they've already got enough in their backpacks," Scarlet told Tekka.

Tekka nodded distractedly, she was watching a couple break up, and the girl was currently ordering her groudon to chase her ex-boyfriend, "Yeah, sure."

"And we really need to go soon, or everyone else will already be at the new regions and the old regions will all be full," Scarlet continued to vent.

"Yeah," Tekka turned back to Scarlet, a passing police officer had come to stop the fight, "but this place was never really too full already, I mean you could meet everyone that lives here in about two years, a couple hundred, thousand people from your universe wont do much damage."

"Tekka, there aren't exactly only a few hundred people from where I come from," Scarlet said.

"Thousand? Ten thousand?" Tekka's eyes widened as she said the next word, "Million?"

"More like billion," Scarlet replied.

"We can't have a billion here! The economy would collapse!"

"I don't think it will," Scarlet mused.

"And why do you think that, with all these people eating up our money!"

"Because it's just been crowded, and people are already leaving. They'll spread out eventually, and we'll be fine," Scarlet sighed and rubbed at a spot on her temples where a dull ache was building up, economy, other than politics, was the only thing that gave her an immediate headache.

"Hi," Ava set a tray of food down next to Scarlet, "Had fun saving our table?"

"No," Scarlet replied moodily, while Tekka ventured closer to the food eagerly and sniffed at it.

Bloom made a memorable entrance by coming in humming It's a Small World and making Scarlet groan as her headache worsened.

"Bad day?" Mitsuko asked as she got to the table, dragging along Ralph, she was smiling cheerfully and made Scarlet groan again.

Ralph set another tray down next to Ava's. It wasn't as full as it had been the day before, but it did have the same types of junk food that any doctor would despise. Mitsuko set down another tray next to Ralph's that was an exact double. Ava's tray, Scarlet was happy to see, was filled with orthodox breakfast food.

"Don't you ever worry about indigestion?" Scarlet asked, poking a packet of powdered donuts.

"No, there's always Pepto-Bismol!" Mitsuko said merrily and she dug into the tray as she had the day before. Scarlet was eerily reminded of déjà vu, she hoped that the rest of their time in this foreign world would be different.

After a few minutes of eating or snacking, as was Mitsuko and Tekka's case, Ava stood up abruptly, "I'm late!"

She started stuffing some food into her backpack. She took off in a sort of half-run half-walk into the streets while fumbling to get her backpack on and to pick up Bloom, who she realized soon after she could not carry.

"Bye! I have to go catch a bus in one minute, I lost track of the time. I'll see you later, hopefully soon," Ava waved at them and tried goading Bloom to go faster.

Ava disappeared around the corner and the group sat watching for what seemed like lifetimes.

Scarlet sighed, "She really is gone, isn't she?"

Mitsuko shrugged and went back to nibbling a potato chip heartily. Ralph was checking his watch, "I think we may be late too."

"What do you mean? We're not taking a bus, are we?" Scarlet asked.

"No," Ralph replied, "but we do have to get to the next town before night, unless you really want to sleep in the rain."

Mitsuko grinned, "The rain is nice, why shouldn't we sleep in it?"

"Because the forecast says it's gonna be a tyfoon, that's why," Ralph told her.

"Oh, then we had better eat faster," and to Scarlet's surprise Mitsuko did just that and half the food tray disappeared before their eyes. Mitsuko was already packing leftover food into her backpack while Scarlet was still staring in astonishment.

"How did you do that?" Scarlet asked.

Mitsuko shrugged and forced Scarlet and Ralph out of their seats, "Come on, let's go."

The slightly smaller group got up and left the table, leaving their trays behind. Tekka had to catch up to them in long leaping bounds and scurry up Scarlet's shoulder.

They had to walk through crowds of people trying to get out of town with them, and crowds of people trying to go back into town. A few people had even stopped in the middle of the road to check their maps and were causing eddies and breaks in the stream of people trying to get through. Scarlet was amazed, just yesterday there were less and she could have sworn there weren't as many when they had gotten breakfast.

"Hey, Ralph, don't you think it's strange," she whispered.

"What?" Ralph asked dully, he was busy trying to unfold a map while keeping up with Mitsuko and didn't seem happy about it.

"It's- well, I think more people are coming….I mean, they've been leaving to go to other towns, I know it, but there are more people than yesterday here."

Ralph looked up from his map, surveyed the crowd for a moment without faltering in his long gait, and stopped in his tracks, his eyes widened, "You're right! Mitsuko! Mitsuko!"

Mitsuko stopped and turned around five feet away. She battled with the crowd for a minute and came back to them, "What are you doing? We have to get to the next city, town-whatever it's called."

"But, Mitsuko, look around, there are more people than before! There has to be something wrong here!"

"And what can we do about it? We have to get out of here, then we can talk about this," Mitsuko started trying to drag them back into the current of the crowd, "Let's go!"

Ralph followed reluctantly and Scarlet followed after him, just barely keeping up with them. She was afraid of getting lost in the crowd, and claustrophobia was getting to her as her eyes flickered back and forth between the people closing in on her, she hadn't noticed it being so crowded before.

Tekka yawned, "I can't believe we're finally getting out of here!" the pichu glanced down at her owner, "Can't you go any faster? We're loosing them!"

Tekka was right, by now Ralph and Mitsuko were winking in and out of her line of sight as they went through the crowd. As a rule Mitsuko was better at pushing to the front, and dragging people with her. Mitsuko was also better at loosing people, much to her dismay, and the couple that had been with her in the crowd seconds before were swallowed in and not seen again for a very long time.

Scarlet wavered in the crowd and finally came to a stop. People pushed past her, jostling her and pushing her forward. She resisted all their efforts to move her, and instead they started going around her, with a few careless people bumping into her shoulders.

"I think we're lost," Scarlet said.

Tekka's ear twitched in irritation, "So what? Are you going to just stand there all day or figure out where we are?"

Scarlet didn't hear Tekka, she was already humming a soft melody from Phantom of the Opera, a habit she had picked up and used to relieve stress.

Someone poked her in the shoulder and forced her out of her daze, "Are you moving or not?" It was a voice that was slightly annoyed and one she recognized.

"Ryan!" Scarlet smiled and turned to face him, "I'm so glad you're here!" She hugged him around the neck tightly.

Ryan was startled enough to let her go on hugging him for another minute before he pulled her off. He raised an eyebrow at her, "Is this some way of apologizing for your sentret or something?"

Scarlet frowned, now that someone she knew was there-who really was almost a complete stranger for what she knew about him-her brief joy was almost gone, "I-I'm a little claustrophobic, agoraphobic, whatever it's called, and I'm sorry," she blushed, "Um, is it okay if I stay with you for a while? I got separated from my friends."

Ryan shrugged, "As long as you don't let out that sentret of yours, I guess you can."

A hint of a smile crept up Scarlet's lips, "Thanks," she said and they both started walking through the crowd again.

"Uh, Ralph, I think we lost Scarlet back there," Mitsuko said, looking back over heads in the crowd on her tiptoes without tripping, it was an amazing feat that made Ralph speechless for a moment.

"Yeah….sure," Ralph replied, having no idea of what she had said.

"We'll find her later, she knows where to meet us, right?"

"Um, I don't think she does, we left in a hurry and…" Ralph started to say.

Mitsuko interrupted him, "She'll find us, or we'll find her, eventually," and with that she sped up her pace as she plowed through the crowd.

A/N: I've been busy with vacation and starting high school, sorry. I'll try updating regularly again soon. Hopefully -.-


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